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THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



October 



The day rolls on and the sun goes down, 



And twilight is o'er us thrown ; 

 Ere we are aware the shades appear, 



And our brief twilight's gone. 



The heat of the day has passed away. 



The night is cool and still ; 

 Naught to molest our quiet rest. 



And so we take our fill. 

 Olatha, Kansas. W. Bkckwith. 



Little by little. 



One step and then another 



And the longest walk is ended ; 

 One stitch and then another, 



And the largest rent is mended ; 

 One brick upon another. 



And the highest wall is made ; 

 One flake upon another, 



And the deepest snow is laid. 



So the little coral workers, 



By their slow but constant motion, 

 Have built those pretty islands 



In the distant dark blue ocean ; 

 And the noblest undertakings 



Man's wisdom bath conceived. 

 By oft-repeated efforts 



Have been patiently achieved. 



Age of Apple Orchards. — We obsorye in a 

 number of the agricultural papers, statements from 

 correspondents, particularly toward the South and 

 West, that apple orchards begin to decline and de- 

 cay at an average period of about 40 years from 

 planting. We cannot learn that there are any or- 

 chards in the Western States that exist much lon- 

 ger that this period. There are some in Naw York 

 and New England that are somewhat older, but 

 even many of these show indications that they have 

 passed their prime. Good cultivation in some in- 

 stances, does not seem to prolong their existence, 

 and it is questionable if the best system of pruning 

 would produce greatly differing results. We invite 

 information on this subject — for if this is general- 

 ly the case, and the fact is known to planters, it 

 would save unnecessary expense in attempting to 

 renovate old orchards that are too old to be reno- 

 vated. We are aware that works on fruit speak of 

 apple trees that are two centuries old, but are not 

 these instances very rare, if they exist at all in 

 this country, however common they may be in the 

 more equable and cooler climates of some Europe- 

 an countries. The dwarf pear is often quoted as 

 lasting fifty years in Europe when subjected to the 

 best management and pruning. In the best dwarf 

 pear regions in the United States there are now 

 many trees twenty-five years of age, of those few 

 sorts which succeed best. The question occurs, 

 how much longer lived the apple is than the dwarf 

 pear, when the latter is grown under the most fa- 

 vorable circumstances? — Country Gent. 



An Ice Cave. — A correspondent of the Scientific 

 American writing from Decorah, Iowa, gives the 

 following report of a visit to an ice cave at that 

 place : 



"A friend and I started on a mid-summor trip, 

 crossing the river in a boat, and commenced the 



ascent of the bluff as usual; it being very steep, 

 and upon the whole like the river Jordon — 'a hard 

 road to travel.' All diflBculties, however, being 

 surmounted, we arrived a the mouth of the cave, 

 and sat down to rest awhile^and cool ourselves; 

 looking at the thermometer, we found it stood at 

 eighty. Here we found several pieces of candle 

 and one old candle-stick left by other visitors- 



We then commenced the descent, and as we 

 walked, crawled and slid along, it began to grow 

 cold quite fast , it seemed like going out of a warm 

 room into the cold atmosphere of a winter morning. 

 We soon began to see the frost on the walls, spark- 

 ling in the light of our lamps like millions of dia- 

 monds. This one sight is worth as jnuch as all the 

 natural exhibitions of every lover of the beautiful. 

 As we came to our first stopping place we began 

 to find ice from a mere film up to six or eight 

 inches thick. 



This part of the cave is in the shape of a wedge 

 with the small end up, it being about six feet wide 

 at the ba?e, the sides drawing together overhead 

 about twenty feet high — the one side covered with 

 ice, clear as crystal, and the other with sparkling 

 frost. Now we hung the thermometer on the wall 

 and awnited the result; the mercury going down 

 gradually to thirty degrees where it remained. 



We also had a little water in a cup, and after 

 leaving it on the rock for about ten minutes, it be- 

 came skimmed over with i/e. There is not near 

 the amount of ice in the cave that there usually is 

 at this season of the year, and no doubt it is owing 

 to the dryness of the sea.son. The present spring 

 and summer, so far, has been very dry in Decorah; 

 and I have noticed that the more rain we have, the 

 more ice forms in and around the mouth of the 

 cave. Two years ago, there was so much ice in 

 the first fifty or sixty feet of the cave that we had 

 to cut steps in it with a hatchet to get down with 

 safety. A great quantity of rain fell that season." 



LiTTLK Acts Great. — Little acts are the ele- 

 ments of true greatness. They raise life's value 

 like the little figures over the large ones in arith- 

 metic, to its highest power. They are the tests of 

 character and disinterestedness. They are the 

 straws on life's deceitful current, that show the 

 current's way. The heart comes all out in them. 

 They move on the dial of character and responsi- 

 bility significantly. They indicate the character 

 and destiny. They help to make the immortal 

 man. It matters not so much where we are as 

 what we are. It is seldom 'hat acts of moral he- 

 roism of life is to do all its little duties promptly 

 and faithfully. 



[^~ Two things are necessary to make travel- 

 ing with children a pleasure rather than a trouble 

 — first, that they have faith in you ; second, that 

 they implicitly obey you. Having the first they 

 are without fear ; and where they have learned the 

 second well, a word controls them. In fact, this 

 is everywhere the secret of a happy life with chil- 

 dren. In going around among the people one finds 

 many a house where the children rule, or where 

 their obedience is a matter of bargain and sale. 

 Life in such a house is a bitter experience, and the 

 end bitter. 



